1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which can recognize hand written characters, print characters and other any patterns and, more particularly, to such an image processing apparatus which can be used as a man-machine interface of an electronic apparatus such as a computer, typewriter, word processor, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, a variety of propositions have been made with respect to pattern recognition. For example, in case of using outline information as a characteristic point, there are advantages such that the number of data to be processed is smaller and the processing speed is faster than those in the method whereby a correlation of the two dimensional data in the pattern region is obtained; and a noise which is caused upon what is called a fine patterning process is not generated as compared with the method whereby the pattern frame is derived by way of the fine patterning process and is used as a characteristic point. Actually speaking, for instance, in case of recognizing a pattern using outline information of the pattern, the outline direction in each outline point is obtained as a digitized code in accordance with the direction codes of 1 to 8 shown in FIG. 1.
However, according to this method, for example, if there is a pattern as shown in FIG. 2, the direction code that is derived when the outline is traced clockwise from a start point S.sub.1 in the diagram becomes as shown in FIG. 3 and the direction code which inherently continuously changes becomes discontinuous on the code as shown in the portions indicated at A and B in FIG. 3 (corresponding to a and b in FIG. 2), causing inconvenience upon recognition.
This means that a change in start point due to the case where the original pattern is rotated or the like makes the subsequent recognition difficult and there is a drawback such that the processing time becomes long.
Therefore, it is the main stream that the interface between the apparatus and human being is performed by means of conventional keys contrary to realization of high performance of electronic apparatuses and the unnecessary work of man in this portion is still considerable. Further, such man-machine interface requires skill, so that there is demanded an image processing apparatus which performs the function of the man-machine interface which can edit and process hand written characters or images and can output predetermined figures, printing types or the like.